A recent tour of Brazilian citrus provided Georgia growers with valuable information on how to capitalize on production amid huanglongbing (HLB) disease.
Lindy Savelle, executive director of the Georgia Citrus Association and owner of JoNina Farm, was one of seven producers who attended the week-long tour this fall. One of the main observations was Brazil’s strong production despite the prevalence of HLB disease.
“They’ve been successful at keeping their production up,” Savelle said. “Brazil is producing in spite of having HLB. We went to groves that were 100% infected.”
Savelle noted that a foliar fertilizer company sponsored the trip and took the participating growers to groves, packing facilities, nurseries and to the center of research. “It was packed with information,” she said.
HLB was observed in a Georgia commercial grove for the first time in 2023, a key development for the burgeoning citrus industry in the cold-hardy region that includes North Florida, South Georgia and South Alabama. While HLB’s presence has largely been avoided thus far, its future in the region appears to be unavoidable.
Part of the Georgia growers’ mission on the trip was to learn the protocols for when an HLB-infected tree is observed. Georgia needs to adopt a similar management strategy, believes Savelle.
“They spray a lot more than we do here, and they have to rotate what they’re spraying. They put foliar fertilizer on the tree. They do not use oxytetracycline there,” Savelle said. “When a tree becomes infected, they immediately remove it as soon as they know it, put a new one in and just keep going. It’s just unbelievable how they are able to function with the trees infected. We want to do more of what they’re doing.
“Georgia needs to put some protocols in place for when we do have HLB detected in a grove. We need to take precautions.”
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